L'Enseigne de Gersaint

L'Enseigne de Gersaint
ArtistJean-Antoine Watteau
Year1720–1721
CatalogueH 124 (126); G 95; DV 115; R 182; HA 215; EC 212; F A39; RM 248; RT 116
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions163 cm × 308 cm (64 in × 121 in)
LocationCharlottenburg Palace, Berlin

L'Enseigne de Gersaint (transl. "The Shop Sign of Gersaint") is an oil on canvas painting in the Charlottenburg Palace in Berlin, by French painter Jean-Antoine Watteau. Completed during 1720–21,[1] it is considered to be the last prominent work of Watteau, who died some time after. It was painted as a shop sign for the marchand-mercier, or art dealer, Edme François Gersaint.[2] According to Daniel Roche the sign functioned more as an advertisement for the artist than the dealer.[3]

The painting exaggerates the size of Gersaint's cramped boutique, hardly more than a permanent booth with a little backshop, on the medieval Pont Notre-Dame, in the heart of Paris, both creating and following fashion as he purveyed works of art and luxurious trifles to an aristocratic clientele.[4]

  1. ^ Craske, Matthew (1997). Art in Europe 1700–1830: A History of the Visual Arts in an Era of Unprecedented Urban Economic Growth. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 175. ISBN 0192842064.
  2. ^ Bazin, Germain (1964). Baroque & Rococo. Translated by Jonathan Griffin. London: Thames & Hudson. p. 197. ISBN 0500200181.
  3. ^ Of the enseigne, "Elle ne fait pas publicité de Gersaint, mais celle de Watteau", Daniel Roche observes in his preface to Guillaume Glorieux's monograph, À l'Enseigne de Gersaint: Edme-François Gersaint, marchand d'art sur le Pont Notre-Dame, Paris, 2002; of Gersaint, Glorieux remarks at the outset, "immortalisé par le chef-d'oeuvre de Watteau, Gersaint est célèbre mais on ne sait presque rien de lui."
  4. ^ "Gersaint, faiseur de modes, suiveur de modes, est, d'une autre façon que Watteau, un créateur vrai", remarks Daniel Roche in his preface to Glorieux 2002:v.